Facebook Suspends Fake News Network Linked to Bolsonaro Family Cabinet Staff
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Wednesday, July 8th, Facebook announced that it had taken down a network of fake news and profiles linked to the PSL (Social Liberal Party) and to officials in the offices of President Jair Bolsonaro, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, Federal Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro and State Deputies for Rio de Janeiro Anderson Moraes and Alana Passos. The announcement was made in a call with journalists from different countries, including Brazil.
Thirty-five accounts, 14 pages, one group, and 38 Instagram accounts were identified. The Facebook pages had 883,000 followers, while the Instagram accounts had 917,000 followers. The group comprised 350 people.
The posted material included content related to the elections, political memes, criticism of the opposition, media outlets, and journalists, as well as material related to the coronavirus. According to the social media, part of the network’s content had already been removed from the platform for violating community standards.
Among the violations were hate speech material. Details of the full Brazilian operation were posted on the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab website, an institution that conducts an independent review of Facebook removals for coordinated inauthentic behavior.
The announcement is part of a removal of disinformation networks operating in four territories posting content related to domestic political issues. In addition to Brazil, networks have been suspended in the US, the Ukraine, and in Latin American countries such as El Salvador, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Chile. In the Brazilian case, the investigations and removals occurred based on reports in the Brazilian press and references made to the matter in Congress during the Fake News CPMI (Joint Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry).
Nathaniel Gleicher, director of Cybersecurity at Facebook, was cautious in pointing out the direct involvement or awareness of politicians in the campaign, namely in coordinating the posts. “We can not assert the direct involvement of the people cited, but we can assert that people associated with them and their offices have engaged in inauthentic behavior on the platform”.
According to the executive, there is no evidence that a company was hired to conduct the task, as was the case with the operation in other Latin countries. However, the Brazilian operation spent US$1,500 on Facebook ads which were paid in Reais (about R$8,000).
According to the Atlantic Council, the involvement of office staff may point to the operation using public funds, because the posts were made during regular business hours. The document cites Tercio Arnaud Tomaz, José Matheus Salles Gomes and Mateus Matos Diniz as operators, all advisors to the presidency and alleged members of the “hate cabinet”.
The Atlantic Council identified the staff’s links between the offices of city councilor Carlos Bolsonaro and São Paulo state deputy Colonel Nishikawa. The employee of Colonel Nishikawa’s office is Johnathan William Benetti.
The Atlantic Council also mentions Paulo Eduardo Lopes (known as Paulo Chuchu), an employee of Eduardo Bolsonaro’s office. Linked to state deputies in Rio de Janeiro are Leonardo Rodrigues de Barros and his girlfriend Vanessa Navarro. The former is an employee of Alana’s office and the latter of Moraes’ office.
Source: O Estado de S. Paulo
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